STC, local schools get grant to help dropouts

McALLEN — It will be one year this October since Esteban Villarreal, 18, lost nearly $500 to a fraudulent online high school that sent him a useless diploma and pair of transcripts.

Though the Mission High School dropout blamed no one but himself for pursuing the path of least resistance, he had hoped the elusive diploma would solve many of his problems.

“A truancy judge was after me, citing me $300 every six weeks, but I had to work in Dallas as a painter,” Villarreal explained. “The diploma arrived, the judge was satisfied. Everything seemed all right.”

Then he took the generically named Nation High School degree to South Texas College and Mission High.

Counselors there quickly determined that without proper state backing, he would still have to finish his missing school credits and proficiency tests.

“I spent so much money and still have to go back to high school,” Villarreal told The Monitor recently. “I could have done that for free.”

And now, STC has offered him a chance to earn his real diploma — along with some college credits — thanks to a Gateway to College National Network grant.

Selected alongside 29 other community and technical colleges across the United States, STC will use the $325,000 grant to partner with McAllen and Mission school districts to dual enroll students aged 16 to 21 who dropped out of high school or may be struggling to catch up.

“They will have a legitimate college ID card. They will no longer be a high school student,” said Michael Wilson, director of STC’s Gateway to College Program. “This actually gets them their home school high school diploma, and it’s better than a (General Equivalency Degree).

“You have a better chance of getting a job and impressing a college counselor with a real diploma.”

The program could assist up to 300 students — 50 from McAllen and 50 from Mission each year — over the next three years. And this fall, Villarreal will join the first group, which still has limited space for applicants.

“This is a unique opportunity to keep our young people from simply becoming statistics,” said Cornelio Gonzalez, Mission schools superintendent. “This may be just the thing needed to give some of our young people a second chance at a better life.”

And that is exactly what Villarreal, now a local bartender, said he appreciated most.

“It would be nice to open up my own business,” he said. “I have no idea in what (field) yet, but it’ll come.

“I learned how to find success the right way.”

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4472.